Imagine being diagnosed with diabetes. On doctor's orders, diabetics must change diet, exercise routines, and start monitoring their condition in a variety of ways.

Learning how to deal with such a condition can be baffling at first. That's where Jan Gardner comes in.

She's the new diabetes educator for Southwest HealthNet, an umbrella group for local physicians and Southwest Memorial Hospital.

Although diabetes is not an unfamiliar disease, people who get diabetes can find themselves at a loss regarding personal care, which foods to eat and when, and how to reorganize their life.

Under a grant from the Colorado Clinical Guidelines Cooperative, Southwest HealthNet created the position of diabetes educator for Montezuma County, a position recently filled by Gardner. The nurse started her job Nov. 12, and is quickly working to get up to speed, said Laura Rice, executive director of Southwest HealthNet.

Gardner, a nurse, had worked at Southwest Memorial Hospital for about 14 years, she said, before leaving for a stint of travel nursing.

"I wanted to come home and stay in my community," she said, when asked about her reasons for taking the new position.

Gardner has kicked off the new position by educating herself - a lot. She is attending a training in Denver on how to use an insulin pump, an apparatus that diabetics wear all the time that gives them periodic injections of insulin to regulate the levels of that hormone in their blood.

The new educator has already had some practice at using the pump. She wore one for a week just to see how it worked and felt, so that she could identify with and help her new clients.

The amount of information available on diabetes and how to manage the disease can be overwhelming, Gardner said.

"As a nurse I had a basic level of knowledge that I am now building upon to be more specified," she said.

The nurse's small office was packed with textbooks she'd borrowed from the diabetes education program at Mercy Regional Medical Center in Durango, and she said there are a number of great sites available on the Internet.

"It's almost too much information, which is why we need a diabetes educator," Gardner said.

Part of her job is to sift through those mounds of data on the disease, meet one-on-one with individual patients that doctors refer to her and give them a more personalized approach to managing their condition.

 
"We're teaching them a little more about their disease, how to self manage," she said.

Gardner's desk is littered with educational pamphlets she can give to new diabetics with titles like: "My doctor says I have gestational diabetes ... What do I do now?"

Diabetes patients sometimes have to develop "a whole new lifestyle," Gardner said. "(I help them with) major lifestyle changes and how to manage that on their own."

In addition to doing consultation with patients, Gardner will teach diabetes classes on a regular basis, perhaps one a week.

She'll offer general classes on understanding the disease, on how to take care of feet and eyes, two common problem areas for diabetics, and on diet and menu planning, and possibly others as the need arises.

Mercy Regional Medical Center in Durango has a diabetes educator who teaches some classes in Cortez, but there is a need for a full-time local educator, Rice said.

The classes will follow the model set by the Mercy's classes, which usually involve a lecture and then individual meetings with diabetics after the class, Gardner said.

Physicians have counted 1,400 patients in Montezuma County with diabetes, Rice said. That number puts the county in about average range for per capita incidences of diabetes, she said.

But at Mercy Regional Medical Center, a study showed that there may be a large number of American Indians not counted in the survey, which was based on reports from doctors in the county. These doctors do not see the American Indian patients, who may go to the Towaoc clinic or to Shiprock, Rice said.

If the numbers of American Indian diabetics are added in, Montezuma County probably has a higher than normal rate, Rice said.

Gardner's also organizing an extensive database for diabetics in the county that will help doctors monitor their patients, to see if they are being seen as often as necessary, and if they are getting regular checkups and labs completed.

Eventually, she'll teach educational seminars on diabetes to local schools, senior centers, and other community programs, said Gardner.

"One of our long-range goals is to get the program more out to the community," added Rice.

(The article from:cortezjournal.com)

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

Add Comment